Hey, my name is Jeff and i'm 31 years old. I'm married to my beautiful wife Amanda, have two beautiful 2.5 year old twin girls Sofie and Ally, and 2 dogs. I play poker close to full time online (not anymore) now LIVE, at least try to. Music is also a big part of my life. Writing, listening, and hopefully starting my band back up in some near future!!!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

I'm sure I talked about this in other posts and I can't remember, but when your game goes down the tube and you don't know what you are doing anymore, lose confidence, etc etc, what do you do? Well this has happened to me over 2 months now since I took my shots at 100nl and haven't really figured out why I haven't got my game back on track. It has a lot to do with playing sessions and breaking even/losing. Which leads to your overall confidence going down. From there, you don't know what the heck to do. I tried to get back into it a while back watching a few videos, retooling which I thought I was my game, trying to do whatever I could. I was sick of myself and decided to try other games out like 6max again. To some it might be could to switch things up, but I think for me, it was a huge mistake and paid for it, literally. I honestly felt like I did back in April/May where I didn't know why I was playing this game. But then, something clicked in my brain and I thought to myself, how come I am not continually working on my full ring game like I was. Sure things weren't working out over the past few months, but it had a lot to do with me. I wasn't playing my A game at all, just my B or maybe even C. I think I just threw together everything I had worked so hard over my winning months and just mixed it in a blender and went on autopilot. Just mindlessly doing things to do it and that is just bad. I wasn't thinking about my game, my tables, the players, the cards, etc. I became a complete robot. Just trying anything I could to get my game back without thinking about it.

The time has come again to change that. Since December 4th, I've had a lot of things to think about and to continually get better at poker. A lot more concepts to work on and rework the things I did in the past. It all starts with one thing and you continue from there. So with that said, I am slowly getting back on track with my game and my results are getting better again, especially at 50nl where I couldn't even crush the game in October/November. I am thinking about every hand, every table, every opponent. Trying new things out that I would just in the past not think about. I went back to a few post I had wrote back months and months ago and reread some of stuff that made me get better and that has really helped as well. But like I said, I am redefining my game for the better if I want to move up and not be stuck at 50NL forever. So 2011 is hopefully going to breakthrough for me and past 50NL. 2010 was a fun ride, a lot of emotions, a lot of ups and downs, and it being my first year of playing poker professionally online. I have to say its been good and the best thing about it is getting to stay home with my babies. They are now 16 months and counting. It has been amazing none the less and I do it for my wife and kids. I'm hoping next year I can really make it happen and make more money than this year will be really helpful.

Hope you guys and gals have a great Christmas!!! A great New Year!!! I'll try and post something before the end of the year.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

How's everything doing out there? Good I hope!! It's been a while since I posted and to be honest, I haven't really found the time to do so outside of grinding hands, taking care of my babies during the day, spend time with the wife, and have family time. As most of you know, I've been trying to get my game back in gear since the end of September and haven't really had a good momentum in doing so. October and November were small losing months, basically break even. Luckily I have rakeback. December hasn't been going to well for me as well because I decided to be a moron and play some 6max games the the end of November and Beginning of December. Lets just say, it was a trainwreck. I guess jumping back into the waters as a lagtard can really be spewy. So as of December 4th, I've playing all Full Ring now and for a while. I decided to keep sticking with 50nl for obvious reasons and that is to rebuild confidence, bankroll, and redefine my game.

Over the course of June, July, August, and September, I had some solid results. That's because I worked on different aspects of my game one at a time. Over the other previous months, I had no idea what I was doing, but what I did get out of it was getting out of marginal situations, like flipping AT best spots. With the volume I put in, I have to realize that there are more plus ev spots for me to get in. Since October and November, I just been mindlessly playing and not thinking to much about the game. Why I open here, why I 3bet, etc etc. Not that it wasn't the right play, but poker is all about adjusting and readjusting, and that's something I haven't really been doing for a few months now.

Also, I haven't really had the chance to study, talk poker, post in forums, post hands, do sweats, watch videos, etc. Since I depend on the money, I have to grind. Though, I have been making a conscious effort to work on my game away from the tables and finding time to do more things related to poker and talk to more people and watching videos just to keep my mind freshened up. It hasn't been easy, and a lot of times when I watch a video, I just end up falling asleep half way through, but it's something I have to do if I want to keep improving. As far as my full ring results this month, they are ok. I'm actually up over 10 bi's. Not good, but not bad. I've been chasing my last milestone for the month and need about 4700vpps till my 300k milestone. $3600 is a nice little bonus with the holidays and all. Outside of the milestone, I still am trying to get as many vpp's to get a $1500 supernova bonus or concierge whatever I can to get the most out of my points. So far, if i keep up the volume like I've been doing this month, I might make close to 75000fpps which will be worth close to $1200 and that would help with not using my milestone for bills.

So I talked earlier about redefining my game. I'm not really sure what that entails, but i'm trying to get into all +EV situations (don't we all). I noticed that my vpip/pfr changes every session, but I think it's a good thing since I'm paying close attention to most of my tables. Realizing that I do put in lots of volume and sometimes 10k plus hands a day, I really have to play optimally and not mindlessly. I was running some pretty aggressive stats my winning months, but I think that to improve and move up, I have to get better and it is going to restart at 50nl. I might post more later about certain concepts, but I have to test it out the next month or two and see if it is going to work for me. Next year I plan on putting in over 2.4million hands. This year I think I put in a little over 1.5million hands. As far as SNE, I'm not going to say I'm going to make it next year, but I'm going to let it come to me. If I can keep making profits, then SNE won't be to far away next year.

I also have some other things going on for next year and when I finalize everything, i'm going to be really excited since this will hopefully improve my game and make 2011 my year and maybe even FULL RING KING!!!

As far as this year, it's been a rough ride. I made out to what I planned on doing and that is playing poker for a living online. Not the results I hoped for, but luckily for rakeback and bonuses, I've been keeping poker alive and have more of a poker bankroll than I started with last year which is good. I learned a lot since then and still trying to find what works for me. I think i'm getting close and closer to the rainbow, but only time will tell. I think though, redefining my game is going to help me move up in limits instead of being a 50NL grinder for life and hopefully take care of my family in the long run.

I hope everyone has a great December, make lots of money, get lots of gifts, and spend time with the ones you love. Until then, good luck on the journey